Insurance statistics record the assets and liabilities of insurance corporations in Germany on a quarterly basis. The data on corporations in the life, health, property and casualty insurance sectors and reinsurance corporations are shown separately. The statistics are used to analyse their assets and financing situation. The national results are also included in the ESCB insurance statistics and serve as a building block for the euro area’s financial accounts.

ESCB insurance statistics data are published from the third quarter of 2016. (Prior data on insurance statistics were calculated as secondary statistics based on Solvency I supervisory data from the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) with the aid of banking statistics and securities holdings statistics collected by the Bundesbank.)

The legal framework of ESCB insurance statistics is the Regulation on statistical reporting requirements for insurance corporations (ECB/2014/50). Pursuant to this regulation, data are to be transmitted to the central banks on a quarterly basis, starting with data for the first quarter of 2016. In Germany, the statistics are based on the Solvency II reports submitted by corporations to the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority and passed on to the Bundesbank, as well as on the ESCB’s centralised securities database. The reporting dates correspond to those for Solvency II reporting. The supervisory information requirements are laid down in the Implementing Technical Standards (ITSs) for Solvency II. The annex to the ITSs also contains quantitative reporting templates (QRTs).

Although a large part of the information required pursuant to Regulation ECB/2014/50 is covered by the supervisory reports, some additional data are still needed. The ECB and EIOPA have therefore worked together closely to draw up reporting forms, which, in addition to the supervisory data, also contain the information required for the insurance statistics. The national central banks can decide whether to use these to make it easier to compile the statistics required for reporting purposes instead of collecting their own statistics.

The ECB's extended reporting forms are called "unofficial reporting templates including ECB add-ons". They indicate which data are required for the statistics that are not covered by the supervisory requirements (ECB add-ons). The reporting templates comprise

1. the Solvency II QRTs including ECB add-ons, and
2. new templates solely for statistical purposes.

For reasons of simplicity, those QRTs required for the statistics that did not need to be changed are not included. Instructions for completing the ECB add-ons can be found in the corresponding log files.

The templates are called "unofficial templates" in order to distinguish them from the QRTs of the Implementing Technical Standards. If the latter are altered, a corresponding amendment is also made to the unofficial reporting templates.